The images of his arrest are ready to go around the world. And for good reason. Tunisian lawyer Sonia Dahmani, a known critical voice of President Kais Saied, was arrested on Saturday evening while she was live with the French channel France 24, until the connection was interrupted by police officers. Her eventful arrest took place in the middle of the Lawyer’s House, where she had taken refuge surrounded by colleagues.
The building was “stormed by dozens of masked security force agents, who used violence,” Laroussi Zguir, president of the Tunis section of the Bar Association, protested to the press. demanding the “immediate release” of Sonia Dahmani and announcing a lawyers’ strike from Monday.
Two other journalists arrested
The public news channel France 24, for its part, denounced the attitude of the police officers who interrupted the intervention of its correspondent, “torn the camera from its tripod” and arrested its cameraman for “around ten minutes”. France 24 “strongly condemned this obstruction of press freedom and this brutal and intimidating intervention by the police preventing its journalists from carrying out their profession”.
At the same time, Borhen Bssais, television and radio presenter, and Mourad Zeghidi, political commentator, were also arrested. The three detained columnists are being prosecuted under Decree 54, promulgated in September 2022 by President Saied to repress the dissemination of “fake news” but criticized by defenders of Tunisian and international rights because it is subject to a very broad interpretation.
“What extraordinary country are we talking about? »
In a year and a half, more than 60 people, including journalists, lawyers and opponents of Kais Saied, have been prosecuted on the basis of this text, according to the National Union of Journalists. Since President Saied, democratically elected in October 2019 for five years, granted himself full powers during a coup in July 2021, Tunisian and international NGOs have deplored a regression of rights in Tunisia.
Sonia Dahmani is particularly criticized for having said in an ironic tone last Tuesday in a television program: “what extraordinary country are we talking about?” », in response to another columnist who claimed that migrants arriving from sub-Saharan Africa were seeking to settle in Tunisia.